The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1909, Page 25

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he Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

Pusitsuep BY THE Evancenical Lutieran Synopical ConrereNce or Norvi AMERICA.
R. A. BISCHOFYF, Enpiron.

Entered at the Post Ofice at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter,

ST. LOUIS, MO., APRIL, 1909. No.

Vol. XXXI.

Easter Joy.

Christ is risen from the dead!
Darkness now no more shall reign,
Thorns no more shall crown the Head
That was bowed with grief and pain.
Christ the Lord, the Mighty King,
From our sin hath made us free!
Where, O Death, is now thy sting?
Where, O Graye, thy victory?

———->——__—_——_

Joyful Easter Tidings.

Christ is risen! These are the Easter tidings,
and they are joyful tidings which should fill our
hearts with gladness and thanksgiving. Joyful
were the Christmas tidings telling us of the birth
of a Savior. But what would that Christmas mes-
sage signify if it could not be said of the same
Savior: “He is risen”? If we had no Easter, we
could have no Christmas. If we had no Easter, we
could have no Gospel. St. Paul says: “If Christ
be not risen, then is our preaching vain”? And
again he says: “If Christ be not raised, your faith
is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.”
But the joyful Easter tidings tell us that Christ
is risen. His resurrection is the seal which God
has set to the truth of the Gospel.

Christ is risen! Joyful tidings! ‘They assure
us that our Savior is not a mere man. A mere man
could not save us. A mere man could not bear the
sin of the human race, together with the wrath of
God and the curse of the Law, nor satisfy infinite
divine justice, nor overcome death, hell, and the
devil. Our Savior must be not only true man, but

also true God. Christ, in rising from the dead,
proved Himself to be true God. In the grave all
human power is at an end. All the wisdom of the
wise and all the power of the mighty of the earth
cannot conquer death. But Christ did conquer
death. Death and the grave could not hold Him.
He rose triumphant from the grave as the Lord of
life, the almighty Son of the living God. ‘There-
fore St. Paul says of Jesus that He was “declared
to be the Son of God with power by the resurrec-
tion from the dead.” We have a divine Savior,
able to save to the uttermost all that come unto
Him. God’s own Son is our Savior. Joyful Easter
tidings !

Christ is risen! Joyful tidings! They assure
us that the work which Christ came to do is finished.
He came to redeem sinners. To that end He took
our place under the Law, fulfilling for us all its
demands, and bearing for us the curse and pun-
ishment which we deserved. Our sins were laid
upon Him and brought upon Him the deepest
agony, the most bitter sufferings, the most shameful
death upon the cross. And when He had done all
that was to be done and had suffered all that was
to be suffered, He cried out upon the cross: “It is
finished !? He then bowed His head in death and
was laid in the graye. Had He remained there
in the power of death, the work of redemption
would not be finished, the victory would not be
won. It would mean that the burden of the world’s
sin and woe was laid upon Him and crushed Him.
But, blessed be God, it was not so. Christ is risen,
and in His resurrection we see that the atonement
for sin is complete, that the work of redemption is
finished. Laden with our sins, He, as our Substi-